By IANS,
New Delhi : The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Wednesday alleged that Maharashtra’s ruling coalition partners the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) are giving overt and covert support to MNS chief Raj Thackeray for inciting violence against migrants.
“We condemn the attacks on north Indians. We condemn the Congress and the NCP for their overt and covert support to MNS (Maharashtra Navnirman Sena),” BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters here.
He said the Congress was intentionally “not taking action against the MNS to counter the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra”.
“Tough action is found to be lacking,” Prasad said.
A number of violent attacks on people from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh have taken place in Maharashtra in the last one month.
A group of at least 10 commuters Wednesday morning assaulted a youth from Uttar Pradesh, Dharamdev, and three of his friends in a scuffle over taking window seats in the suburban train compartment. Dharamdev succumbed to his injuries barely half an hour later at a hospital in Badlapur, around 80 km from Mumbai.
Two days ago, a Bihari youth, Rahul Raj, was gunned down by the police after he attempted to hijack a BEST public transport bus with 25 commuters on board.
On Oct 19, many candidates from Bihar who had come to Mumbai to appear for a railway recruitment examination were attacked by Maharashtra Navnirman Sena activists. It led to the arrest of Raj Thackeray and retaliation by his partymen across the state.
Prasad also asked Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad and Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) chief Ram Vilas Paswan, both central ministers from Bihar, “why they are not asking the central government to impose Article 356 in Maharashtra” though they demanded it for Orissa during communal violence there in recent weeks.
Prasad condemned the MNS for violence against north Indians and tried to cover up for its ally Shiv Sena in Maharashtra, which has also been fighting for the cause of “Marathi manus” and want outsiders to leave Maharashtra.
“They have been asking for domicile… That is another issue. It’s everywhere,” shrugged Prasad, adding that domicile does not violate the “fundamental right to move anywhere in the country”.